#NCGOP (Damn! Was that an Earthquake ????)
The rumors of the
grassroots’ demise are greatly exaggerated.
Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, foresaw the events that transpired at the NCGOP convention in Raleigh today. Cabarrus County Tea Party activist Hasan Harnett decisively defeated the establishment choice — somebody named Craig Collins — in the race for state Republican Party chairman. Collins had big name consultants in his corner, and had been endorsed by a veritable who’s who of the NCGOP. Many old political hands I talked to today laid blame for Collins’ defeat on the early bandwagon endorsements from the governor, lieutenant governor, US senators and right on down the line.
Gov. Pat has got to be feeling a bit punch-drunk. The legislature has slapped him around over his vetoes. Now, party activists put the kibosh on his choice for state party chairman. If it’s not yet clear that the emperor governor has no clothes — IT SHOULD BE.
The day started off with the chairman’s race as a three-way between Harnett, Collins, and 6th district chairman A.J. Daoud. Those three spoke to the delegates before voting began. Daoud surprised everyone by withdrawing from the race — leaving it a Collins v. Harnett affair. Why did A.J. withdraw? A well-placed mole in the convention hall gave me their take: 
”Daoud was approached by Collins’s team who told him ‘Hey, you can’t win.’ They then made him an offer he couldn’t refuse — one that could be quite lucrative — contingent on dropping out of the race and endorsing Collins. Daoud went back to his team — trying to lobby them to move over to Collins. And a freaking riot just about broke out. A.J.’s team was devoutly anti-establishment. They weren’t about to go over to the establishment camp after all of the work they put in. With A.J. out of the race, his supporters only had one place to go. Harnett.”
Ok, let’s review the winners and losers in the aftermath of today’s events:
WINNERS: Obviously Harnett and grassroots / Tea Party-friendly activists. Folks long locked out of the Raleigh clique now have the keys to the palace. During the campaign, Harnett actually spoke out against some of the less-than-conservative moves by the legislative leadership. This could signal a dramatic departure from the Pope era — where the chairman was the governor’s yes-man — to a new era of a state party that defends the platform, gives voice to limited government ideals, and speaks for the folks outside the beltline who don’t have lobbyists or inside connections.
LOSERS: Of course, Craig Collins. And let’s not forget all of those people who threw out their endorsements for a
political unknown when Collins officially announced. How do you call yourself a party leader when the activists throw their support behind YOUR GUY’S opponent? The consultants and groupies who have hung out in party headquarters for years could also be in for a rude awakening.
I swear, I think it’s going to be great to watch Hasan go head-to-head with Bill Barber and his bunch at the NAACP.
I do see the potential out here for sore loser-ism among the Collins camp. Much like what happened when Randy Voller won the Democrat Party chairmanship. A lot of folks in that case took their marbles and went home. Super PACs were set up to circumvent the state party. Voller was bad-mouthed to donors and potential candidates. Let’s see if the Collins camp gives Harnett a chance to formulate a team and get up and running.
I’m going to try to be optimistic, but I won’t hold my breath. There are a lot of people who have gotten filthy rich over the years via the NCGOP cookie jar, who are now going to be a LOT further away from said cookie jar.
Congratulations to Team Harnett.
Watching Dee and David and Stam walk out with their head down was priceless. Adios amigos …
And Michele nix won the Vice Chair. Congratulations to our NEW Madam Vice Chairwoman!
Respectfully submitted by SD2010
Your mole is a moron… Daoud withdrew for party unity.
AJ was a SELLOUT ask him about he meeting with the Governor’s moron last night. And just so you know he is the big loser today, No Respect from Grassroots Never. We will use him as the example of selling out. He makes Richard Morgan look pretty good.
Friday night After the establishment completed their inside polling, they where shocked to find out that Collins was only at 40% that is when the idea of getting AJ to sellout came up. Today’s vote was antiestablishment. We would vote for anyone but the establishment. No one will forget AJ the SellOut
Let’s get this straight. Nothing, or no one, makes Richard look good.
And that is just the cold. hard truth. 🙂
AJ didn’t endorse anyone
OMG, this cannot be, the people can’t run this party, this will be an absolute disaster, they won’t know what to do, they won’t know how to position our people in the legislature to divert public money to our friends. This is therrible, therrible I tell you. We are all doomed to think of a mere citizens led effort to run this party. Its therrible I thell you. Just therrible. We’re all doomed.
OMG, whhhoooo fan my face, fan my face, this is a terrible, it gets worse, if our people are not in position in the legislature then we can divert the public’s funds to our friends on the the outside, we’ll lose our sugar daddies, then our campaign contributions will dry up and our clients won’t get reelected then we’ll have to go find other work. Ohhhh fan my face, fan my face, Wait, I just had a vision, wait its coming to me, it’s coming into view OMG it’s me the great Dee Stewart in a McDonald’s drive thru asking a customer if they want fries with that order, oh it get’s worse it’s Paul Shumaker handing the customer the food at the next window. Ohhhh, fan my face, fan my face, whooooo This is a disaster! Oh the humanity of it all.
Dee, David, Stam, and a host of others. Get a real life, and a real job, guys!
How about the Haymaker posting the name of any Republican candidate who uses Dee Stewart or Paul Shumaker. We will then know two things.
1) They aren’t good conservatives, because they use consultants who have sold out to the left for the almighty dollar.
2) They aren’t very smart, because these two guys could take a sure thing and screw it up.
For Shumaker you can start with a big one – Richard ”Tricky Dick” Burr. Next time Burr sends you a contribution letter, use his postpaid envelope to tell him ”No way, Jose, as long as Shumaker is working for you.” Better yet, lets get a successful conservative primary challenge to Burr.
“Moles are” Greg. Plural.
First and foremost, it was a rejection of McCrory. The delegates resent his having split the party and his veto of the religious liberty bill just one week ago was the final straw. That veto is the most egregious mistake he has made and has infuriated Republicans. It may very well cost him re-election. If McCrory is smart, he will do an about-face and ask the House to overturn his veto on Monday night, thus admitting his mistake. Will be interesting to see if he has the courage to do so.
Absolutely correct, I suspect!
Oh I think it goes a little more far reaching than just McCrory. Think house cleaning from Main Street to DC.
Done that mean saying good-bye to McCain’s and Graham’s bunk mate? Burrrrrrrrr, is it getting cold?
Do you mean McConnell’s asskisser, who has been voting regularly to enable Obama’s policies? The Senate Conservatives Fund is looking for a primary opponent to him. Lets help them find one.
I agree, and add that he come out in support of HB562 and its repeal of the racist, Jim Crow Pistol Purchase Permit. He threatened to veto it last session in HB937 ….to do so now might just be committing political suicide by slitting BOTH wrists
There are dangers at the Executive Committee meeting, particularly in the election of the six lesser officers – General Counsel, Treasurer, Secretary, and their assistants. Conservatives need to elect conservatives to those offices.
It is particularly essential to have reliable people as General Counsel and Treasurer.
Traditionally, these offices have been elected as normal elections, nominated from the floor at the state executive committee, rather than being hand picked by the state chairman. There were active campaigns by grassroots people seeking these offices, and the state chairman did not openly take sides. That all changed when Bill Cobey was chairman, and since then state chairmen have mostly succeeded in imposing their own choices for these offices upon the executive committee, nominating them themselves. Claude Pope did it as a slate with an up or down vote on the whole slate. These cram downs are an insult to the grassroots. They are high handed and authoritarian and need to be stopped.
I will lose some faith in Harnett if he plays the cram down game like Pope. These offices need to have fully open elections, but conservatives need to have their candidates lined up to be nominated from the floor. If things seem to be going astray, there needs to be a quorum call, and get it done right at a later meeting.
What is expected of the Secretary and/ or assistant? I may be interested.
Normally, I’d agree with Raphael but these are special circumstances. HH cannot afford to let these officer positions fill up with people who are prepared to undermine him from within when he is attacked from without.
Advice for Executive Committee meeting today: If you think you have the votes to pass something, let it come to a vote instead of lining up to make your point. People tend to trickle out of the room and then someone calls for a count and before you know it, the meeting is over. Also, watch for speeches and delays that waste time at the beginning of the meeting. Gift giving, etc, is calculated to run down the clock. Stay strong, good luck!
I am waiting for comments from the Bully Barber Band of Monday Marching Marxist Mobs and how they will denigrate Hasan Harnett like they did South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. Oh this is going to be g-o-o-o-o-o-d!
I am Chairman of Gates GOP as well as an officer of the local NAACP. I will give report as to this past weekend to both groups, I foresee excitement from both LOCAL organizations and if anyone has further questions the Gates GOP number is (252)-722-1306.
Governor Pat needs to back off his veto threats….especially concerning the next one in the hopper…HB562….does he really want to align himself with Michael Bloomburg and Gabby Giffords after this last night? Both Hassan Harnett and Michele Nix are STRONG supporters of the 2nd Amendment. I know, I asked!
Y’all elected a failed 12th district campaign manager and floundering Ben Carson PAC manager over the recommendations of the entire elected leadership? Anyone remember the effects of Michael Steele on the RNC?
That earthquake was democrats Dancing in the streets of Raleigh looking at 1 term Pat.
1-term Pat will earn his 1 term all on his own at the rate he is going, thank you.
The entire elected leadership sucks. They’re all Obama Republicans and money hungry whore dogs, save 1 over in the state senate.
The 12th district is a safe Democrat district, and failing has a different measurement there. I would say that the Coakley campaign did all you could expect in a district like that.
If you want failure, look at the failed political consultant who was elected NCGOP chairman in 2009. Tom Fetzer took an incumbent candidate, Elizabeth Dole, who was way ahead in the polls and running against a dud, and spectacularly crashed her campaign, costing us a Senate seat that could have staved off Obamacare. The little inbred clique of elitists in the GOP establishment thought that merited him being NCGOP chairman, so they all did their little circle jerk and anointed him.
Or if you want to look at who proved themselves among this year’s candidates, there is a good direct comparison only for two as both were first term district chairman. Pull the 6th district and 10th district campaign finance reports if you want to see which one was the failure as a district chairman. And that one was your side’s state chairman candidate.
GUWonder…I will have to disagree with you there. You said the Coakley campaign did all it could do in a district like that. You are correct losing in those districts is a different measuring stick. I would have to tell you to go look at the race ran in the First in 2010. The GOP candidate far exceeded what Coakley did in the 12th in 2014. Both are majority minority districts so to make an argument that the Coakley campaign was successful there doesn’t meet the muster. Coakley didnt quite get 25%. The GOP nominee received 41% in the first in 2010. Even if you go back to the 2010 elections the GOP nominee received almost 35% in the 12th with no fundraising at all. I hope our new Chairmans only claim to fame isnt the race he managed for Coakley. It was an under performed race and if this is his only claim to fame our party is in trouble.
What David Moore fails to understand is that the goal is to effect change in a positive conservative direction. The election of the establishment’s choices would have just been a different flavor of the same old worn out failed policies and tricky policies of the Democrats. The establishment’s only objective was to make more money off the deal using the party apparatus as the vehicle and the delegates as dispendable pawns, not to effect positivie conservative change. The establishment’s vehicle’s engine just blew up yesterday.
Hummm if history serves… adding like candidates in a race splits the vote allowing for a 3rd victory…
Sooo Had AJ stayed in… the establishment chap would have won. Which brings us to an “endorsement” which would have been what many are alluding to.. a sell out… a Benedict Arnold. That’s not the guy I know. And according to a statement above and press releases did not occur…
Beating the drums and declaring AJ a sellout seems premature in my book. A trait many of my friends in the liberty wing share w/ the left…the rush to judgement on emotional wings( I know after 36 years of being left).
I suggest allowing some time before stamping AJ’s picture in the dictionary under sellout. What we may have witnessed here is an act of selflessness many conservatives have forgotten how to exhibit
Brant Clifton and his “moles” concocted the story about AJ to discredit the party further. Had AJ stayed in, Collins wins hands down. Anyone who posts otherwise is clearly retarded.
Oh come on now. Who is Brant Clifton, was he running for a position too? All I know is I started reading the Dailyhaymaker today because someone told me about it at the convention. After reading a few entrys I feel like I’m getting the real story on what’s going on. If this is Brant Clifton’s blog than thank you Mr. Clifton whoever you are. It looks like you put a lot of hard work and study into your content. Certainly one little blog couldn’t change a whole state’s political landscape could it? Sounds like Greg needs to go shopping at Reynolds Wrap for some new head apparel, something in tin foil.
I’m not the one creating false conspiracies about candidates, Connie. Again, Collins wins if AJ stays in. He handed the nomination to hasan on a golden platter.
Collins did not win…. lets leave AJ alone…. This is a new day and a new chance for this party.
And a big turkey feather.
I believe this is the correct analysis. Kudos
Michele Nix, a TEA Party & Liberty Caucus activist, as well as being her County Chairperson, was elected Vice Chairman for the NC Republican Party. So with Hasan Harnett and Michele Nix being the leadership in NC now, this should be huge news across the nation. I was there and am proud to say I voted for both Mr. Harnett and Mrs. Nix. .
Not huge news yet, but it did make RedState.com:
http://www.redstate.com/diary/helmsconservative/2015/06/07/grassroots-conservatives-win-control-nc-republican-party/
The real LOSERS are many more than you know. Dee Stewart is a big loser, but also Patrick Mchenry and his efforts to consolidate power in Raleigh. Watch out for his buddies like Jason Saine and Tim Moore. They have never been conservative and have more secrets than good o’l Denny Hastert and Tom Delay.
They did take it on the chin, but will regroup and try again. Little do they know who all knows the truth.
Two things. If AJ got out for any other reason than that he A)simply didn’t want it or B) supported Hartnett, then he acted rashly. A cursory look would tell you he took more away from Harnett than Collins. If the Collins people offered anything then they weren’t seeing the race clearly. Finally I applaud Harnett for speaking on teamwork. Its about time we see some
Let’s see…New Black GOP Chair with a Muslim name…Wonder when the GOP will ask for his birth certificate..He looks Kenyan to me!